The present invention relates in general to the art of drilling oil and gas wells and, more particularly, to the measurement of rotary torque and RPM for oil and gas drilling rigs.
In the drilling of oil and gas wells with rotary rigs, and, in particular, the drilling of deep wells, the drill pipe is subjected to considerable stress. The stress is imposed by the weight of the drill string, by the resistance of the strata to the rotation of the drill pipe and to the cutting action of the drill bit in the different strata. Care must be taken to control the amount of torque imposed on the drill string, otherwise twist-offs may occur which would result in expensive fishing jobs to retrieve the last portion of the drill string.
The measurement of rotary torque is used to observe pipe sticking, indicate bit wear and optimize drilling. The counting of total revolutions of the drill string can give wear-life data to help prevent failure while drilling. RPM, used with rotary torque, weight on bit and rate of penetration, can be used to calculate factors that give valuable drilling data. The present invention provides a system for the transmission of rotary torque and real time revolutions from the rotary table/Kelly combination of an oilfield or other rotary drilling rig. Real time revolutions allow the RPM to be calculated.